Editorials & Other Articles

MindMover

(5,016 posts) Mon Mar 19, 2012, 06:37 PM Mar 2012

As Sweden Goes, So Goes the World: The Beginning of the End of Cash

There are many, many things to dislike about analog money. Cash and coins are unwieldy. They're heavy. They're dirty. They leave no automatic record of the financial transactions that are made with them.

Here in the U.S., despite Square and PayPal and other services that would seem to herald the end of cash, bills and coins still represent 7 percent of our total economy. In Sweden, however -- which ranked first in this year's Global Information Technology Report from the World Economic Forum -- cash is scarcer. And it's becoming, the AP reports, scarcer still. While Sweden was the first European country to introduce bank notes in 1661, it's now come farther than any other country in the attempt to eradicate them. In most Swedish cities, the AP notes,

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/as-sweden-goes-so-goes-the-world-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-cash/254713/

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Great idea.......

13 replies

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Highlight:

As Sweden Goes, So Goes the World: The Beginning of the End of Cash (Original Post) MindMover Mar 2012 OP

This message was self-deleted by its author Tesha Mar 2012 #1

Heck my watch does almost everything except.....well... MindMover Mar 2012 #2

I already have a card and have zero interest in this feature. TheKentuckian Mar 2012 #12

One question about this DJ13 Mar 2012 #3

Oh boy, there are a lot of those types of questions we should be askin..... MindMover Mar 2012 #4

The Fed doesn't print money. It regulates monetary policy. Liberal Gramma Mar 2012 #10

There will always be a need for cash Speck Tater Mar 2012 #5

and can I have an AMEN........AMEN.....it is called barter..... MindMover Mar 2012 #6

Kind of sucks for panhandlers though! nt kelly1mm Mar 2012 #7

..... MindMover Mar 2012 #8

Nah MikeOlsen Mar 2012 #9

Sounds like a way to make people completely enslaved to the Corporations. Odin2005 Mar 2012 #11

Cash is PUBLIC money. Debit card is PRIVATIZED money. kenny blankenship Mar 2012 #13

Response to MindMover (Original post)

Tesha This message was self-deleted by its author.

MindMover

(5,016 posts)

2. Heck my watch does almost everything except.....well...

Reply to Tesha (Reply #1)

Mon Mar 19, 2012, 06:48 PM

Mar 2012

TheKentuckian

(25,026 posts)

12. I already have a card and have zero interest in this feature.

Reply to Tesha (Reply #1)

Tue Mar 20, 2012, 01:56 PM

Mar 2012

I prefer cash most times and if I want a record of the transaction then I get a receipt. If I don't want to deal in cash then I use the card, there is no bonus to me to be able to waive it to pay. Some stores use the pay and go that works like that, I never use it, why is it so hard to make a fucking transaction. The card is run through, I get a copy, and I roll out in no time.

It seems the benefit is to a snooping government to know every transaction and to the personal data hungry corporations.

I'll work against this crap and vote down anyone who supports it, on a single issue basis.

DJ13

(23,671 posts)

3. One question about this

Reply to MindMover (Original post)

Mon Mar 19, 2012, 06:48 PM

Mar 2012

If theres no money left to print, would the Federal Reserve still be needed?

MindMover

(5,016 posts)

4. Oh boy, there are a lot of those types of questions we should be askin.....

Reply to DJ13 (Reply #3)

Mon Mar 19, 2012, 06:50 PM

Mar 2012

and are not......?

Liberal Gramma

(1,471 posts)

10. The Fed doesn't print money. It regulates monetary policy.

Reply to DJ13 (Reply #3)

Mon Mar 19, 2012, 09:20 PM

Mar 2012

Speck Tater

(10,618 posts)

5. There will always be a need for cash

Reply to MindMover (Original post)

Mon Mar 19, 2012, 06:58 PM

Mar 2012

and there will always be those who use one form of cash or another, whether government sanctioned or not. Whether it is the neighborhood garage sale or the neighborhood pot grower, cash is not going away. Even if people have to invent their own forms of cash. I guarantee that people living at the margins, in the deserts, pine forests, mountain cabins, houseboats, Alaskan wilderness, and Louisiana swamps, people who are not, and do not want to be wired in will never function without cash.

And if the energy crisis and global climate change continue unabated, there won't be enough electricity to power that magical futuristic wonderland anyway.

MindMover

(5,016 posts)

6. and can I have an AMEN........AMEN.....it is called barter.....

Reply to Speck Tater (Reply #5)

Mon Mar 19, 2012, 07:02 PM

Mar 2012

http://www.barterquest.com/

kelly1mm

(4,733 posts)

7. Kind of sucks for panhandlers though! nt

Reply to MindMover (Original post)

Mon Mar 19, 2012, 07:06 PM

Mar 2012

MindMover

(5,016 posts)

8. .....

Reply to kelly1mm (Reply #7)

Mon Mar 19, 2012, 07:07 PM

Mar 2012

MikeOlsen

(62 posts)

9. Nah

Reply to kelly1mm (Reply #7)

Mon Mar 19, 2012, 08:15 PM

Mar 2012

They'll just need to upgrade their cellphones to accept payments.

Odin2005

(53,521 posts)

11. Sounds like a way to make people completely enslaved to the Corporations.

Reply to MindMover (Original post)

Tue Mar 20, 2012, 12:55 PM

Mar 2012

Cash is convenient for transactions involving small, local scale, sustainable living away from Corporate control.

kenny blankenship

(15,689 posts)

13. Cash is PUBLIC money. Debit card is PRIVATIZED money.

Reply to MindMover (Original post)

Tue Mar 20, 2012, 03:12 PM

Mar 2012

If this trend of digits for money instead of publicly issued bank notes is really the future, then in the future YOU WILL PAY TAX TO A BANK FOR EVERY TRANSACTION IN YOUR LIFE.

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